Mariner teacher in court on sex assault charges

Disturbing details have been uncovered about a Cape Coral teacher and coach accused of having sex with a student.

The Lee County Sheriff's Office released their report Friday on the sexual assault allegations against Mariner High School teacher and boys basketball coach James Harris.

According to the report, the 40-year-old had sex with a female student who is underage – either 16 or 17 years old. The two had sex multiple times, at both Harris' home and at the school.

A large portion of the report is redacted, but what isn't removed describes months of sexual encounters between Harris and the student.

The victim told deputies she and Harris started texting during the summer of 2016. The texts started out innocent but then turned sexual in nature. In the middle of November, the report states Harris texted the girl during the school day asking to see her. When she arrived, Harris started kissing her and put his hands down her pants, according to the report.

The encounters progressed over time. Later in November, Harris texted the girl again during school hours. The report states when the girl got to the classroom, the two had sex on the desk, floor, and out of the view of the window, as shown in the reports.

Harris also asked the girl to come to his classroom at the beginning of December. The two had sex on his desk again.

The two also made plans to meet outside of school. The report states the girl would sneak out of her house late at night, and Harris would pick her up near her home and take her to his house for sex.

The girl told deputies Harris lives in a house with roommates, but she never saw any of them. She was also able to describe to deputies how to get to Harris' bedroom from the front door.

According to the report, the two had sex outside of school around 8 to 10 times and at least three times at the school. Their last sexual encounter was on January 31.

Deputies also searched the victim's phone for evidence. Multiple text messages and pictures were found between Harris and the victim. One of the photos was a screenshot sent by another person to the victim of a message between Harris and the victim where Harris told her, "we need to stop hanging out for a while for real."

Deputies discovered the victim was using a code name for Harris, calling the teacher "Alex" when talking about him to her friends over texts.

During that conversation, the victim told her friend, "You're just mad bc I'm ******* "Alex" Alex is the key name btw lol."

Pictures of red marks on the girl's neck were also found. The victim told deputies they were hickeys that Harris had given her.

Harris remains in the Lee County Jail. A judge set his bond at $100,000 Friday morning. He is facing two sexual assault charges.

If he bonds out, Harris is not supposed to have contact with the victim or minors in any form. He must also have a GPS device put on him before he is released.

Harris' basketball team was on the court Friday night, facing Lely in the district championship game.

The allegations against Harris are hard for the Mariner community to accept.

"Definitely a lot of the basketball players are surprised and disappointed," said Mariner senior Gavin Barrall, who also said he was surprised and thought "[Harris] was actually like a good guy."